Stages of Growth for Knowledge Management Technology in Law Firms

Information technology support for knowledge management can be linked to stages of growth. The first stage addresses end user tools made available to knowledge workers (people-to-technology), while the second involves information about who knows what (people-to-people). The third stage concerns information held by knowledge workers (people-to-docs), with information systems actually solving knowledge problems constituting the fourth and final stage (people-to-systems). A survey of law firms in Norway found 8 firms at stage I, 1 firm at stage II, 11 firms at Stage III and 19 firms at stage IV. Empirical validation of the stages of growth model through benchmark variables using Guttman scaling turned out to be problematic.

[1]  Wendy M. Becker,et al.  Lawyers Get Down to Business , 2001 .

[2]  Dirk E. Mahling,et al.  Toward knowledge management systems in the legal domain , 1997, GROUP '97.

[3]  Ralph H. Sprague,et al.  Electronic Document Management: Challenges and Opportunities for Information Systems Managers , 1995, MIS Q..

[4]  Graham Curtis.  Business information systems - analysis, design and practice , 1989 .

[5]  Michael J. Earl,et al.  Evolving the E-Business , 2000 .

[6]  Varun Grover,et al.  General Perspectives on Knowledge Management: Fostering a Research Agenda , 2001, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[7]  Susan R. Feather,et al.  The Impact of Group Support Systems on Collaborative Learning Groups' Stages of Development. , 1999 .

[8]  Viswanath Venkatesh,et al.  Determinants of Perceived Ease of Use: Integrating Control, Intrinsic Motivation, and Emotion into the Technology Acceptance Model , 2000, Inf. Syst. Res..

[9]  Celina Byers,et al.  Sliding scale: A technique to optimize the assessment of knowledge level through ordering theory , 1998 .

[10]  Øystein D. Fjeldstad,et al.  CONFIGURING VALUE FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: ON CHAINS, SHOPS, AND NETWORKS , 1998 .

[11]  Chris F. Kemerer,et al.  The assimilation of software process innovations: an organizational learning perspective , 1997 .

[12]  James D. Laing,et al.  Prediction logic and quasi‐independence in empirical evaluation of formal theory , 1974 .

[13]  Chava Nachmias,et al.  Research Methods in the Social Sciences , 1976 .

[14]  Christopher L. Tucci,et al.  Internet Business Models and Strategies , 2000 .

[15]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  Validation in Information Systems Research: A State-of-the-Art Assessment , 2001, MIS Q..

[16]  S. Ghoshal,et al.  Social Capital, Intellectual Capital, and the Organizational Advantage , 1998 .

[17]  Fred D. Davis,et al.  A Theoretical Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model: Four Longitudinal Field Studies , 2000, Management Science.

[18]  Robert K. Kazanjian,et al.  APPLYING THE DEL TECHNIQUE TO THE ANALYSIS OF CROSS-CLASSIFICATION DATA: A TEST OF CEO SUCCESSION AND TOP MANAGEMENT TEAM DEVELOPMENT , 1993 .

[19]  Robert K. Kazanjian.  Relation of Dominant Problems to Stages of Growth in Technology-Based New Ventures , 1988 .

[20]  Patricia McKellar,et al.  E-commerce and Legal Practice in Scotland: A Benchmark Survey , 2000, J. Inf. Law Technol..

[21]  P. Kline.  The New Psychometrics: Science, Psychology and Measurement , 1998 .

[22]  Rajiv Sabherwal,et al.  Alignment Between Business and IS Strategies: A Study of Prospectors, Analyzers, and Defenders , 2001, Inf. Syst. Res..

[23]  Morten T. Hansen,et al.  What's your strategy for managing knowledge? , 1999, Harvard business review.

[24]  Amrit Tiwana,et al.  The Essential Guide to Knowledge Management: E-Business and CRM Applications , 2000 .

[25]  T. Goh.  Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organisation , 2000 .

[26]  Amrit Tiwana,et al.  Knowledge integration in virtual teams: The potential role of KMS , 2002, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[27]  Robert K. Kazanjian,et al.  An empirical test of a stage of growth progression model , 1989 .

[28]  Phil Beaumont,et al.  Knowledge management practice in Scottish law firms , 2002 .

[29]  Morten T. Hansen,et al.  The Search-Transfer Problem: The Role of Weak Ties in Sharing Knowledge across Organization Subunits , 1999 .

[30]  Darryl R. Mountain.  Could New Technologies Cause Great Law Firms to Fail? , 2001, Journal of Information, Law and Technology.

[31]  S. Mann.  Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations , 1999 .

[32]  William R. King,et al.  Integration Between Business Planning and Information Systems Planning: Validating a Stage Hypothesis , 1997 .

[33]  Marc Galanter,et al.  Tournament of Lawyers: The Transformation of the Big Law Firm , 1991 .

[34]  Georg Disterer,et al.  Individual and social barriers to knowledge transfer , 2001, Proceedings of the 34th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[35]  Liam Fahey,et al.  The Eleven Deadliest Sins of Knowledge Management , 1998 .

[36]  Patricia McKellar,et al.  The paisley pattern: IT and legal practice in scotland , 2000 .

[37]  Robert K. Kazanjian,et al.  RESEARCH NOTES AND COMMUNICATIONS A REANALYSIS OF MILLER AND FRIESEN'S LIFE CYCLE DATA , 1990 .

[38]  Michael J. Earl,et al.  Knowledge Management Strategies: Toward a Taxonomy , 2001, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[39]  Amrit Tiwana,et al.  The Knowledge Management Toolkit: Practical Techniques for Building a Knowledge Management System with Cdrom , 1999 .

[40]  C. Voss.  Developing an eService Strategy , 2000 .

[41]  M. Hitt,et al.  Direct and Moderating Effects of Human Capital on Strategy and Performance in Professional Service Firms: A Resource-Based Perspective , 2001 .

[42]  R. Mitra,et al.  Analysis of Growth Stages in Small Firms: A Case Study of Automobile Ancillaries in India , 1999 .